Editor’s note: Sharing compassion for the victims of this week’s Oklahoma tornadoes, Jane Owens Cage (’78), one of Wake Forest’s 2013 Distinguished Alumni Award winners, accepted the Rick Rescorla National Resilience award today from Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. Cage, a Joplin, Mo., business owner and community volunteer, chaired the Citizens Advisory Recovery Team after a tornado devastated that city on May 22, 2011. Here are her remarks from today’s event.

On behalf of all of us in Joplin thank-you.

Two years ago today our city marked an inflection point on its timeline that will never be forgotten. A mighty rush of wind battered Joplin but it also filled our collective spirits with resolve. A community that we had sometimes regarded as ordinary suddenly revealed just how precious it was and we became determined to rebuild and renew. We began to set almost unthinkable goals and achieved them – removing debris by the August deadline and opening school on time. Our efforts were multiplied by volunteers from around the world who joined us in our quest. We know we would never have come this far without their help and that we will never be able to repay those kindnesses.

Since those first few months we’ve come so far, and as someone who has been here as witness and participant along the way, the word I would use to describe our recovery is collective. The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, compares the church to a human body, reminding his parishioners that a body is made up of many parts – parts that are distinct yet related and dependent. Just as every body part has a role, every one of us has had a necessary and vital role in Joplin’s continuing recovery. We’ve demonstrated that in ways large and small.

We’ve seen it when citizens had the courage to build the first houses inside the devastation zone to reclaim a neighborhood from the rubble. We witnessed it as families accepted the safe yet stressful haven of moving into FEMA temporary housing units so they could wait for permanent housing in Joplin rather than leave. We watched online voting tolls tick upwards as we competed for precious dollars that we needed to help restore our parks. We’ve cheered as small businesses have reopened along Main Street. We watched congregations of different denominations and faiths share spaces as churches were rebuilt. We have understood the power of home and picked up hammers and saws to help each other get there. We’ve baked and barbecued to make our volunteer helpers feel welcome. We’ve marched against the wind in a show of solidarity that took our breath away.

Damage to Joplin, Mo. in 2011.

I’ve seen men and women bend but not break beneath the load of responsibilities heaped upon them by May 22nd. I’ve seen tired faces around the meeting table as we pushed and planned. I’ve also seen a community that dared to dream by writing their vision on sticky notes in a crowded gymnasium. I’ve seen us recognize our potential and grow bold to reach for what we could become. I’ve been heartened time after time when we have put our individual organizational needs aside to work for the common good.

And while we have pride in our accomplishments, we are not foolish enough I believe, to become a proud people. Our successes will always be tinged by the tragedy that befell us that evening. Our hard work is a testament to the lives that were lost. The restoration and strengthening of our community is the fulfillment of a promise made to future generations to honor the sacrifices made on May 22nd so we might be better prepared for what could and will come our way again.

Through our own tears, we have become a community washed in compassion that only comes from shared experiences. We understand now, in ways we could never have understood before, what it is like when your foundations crumble. The first chapter of Second Corinthians contains these words, “Praise be to God … who comforts us in all our troubles so that we comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received.” While we are grateful for the recognition of our community resilience it should be not regarded as a trophy but as a tool we can use to help pay it forward.

Thank you Secretary Napolitano, Governor Nixon, for what you have done for Joplin. On a personal note, thank you to the Long Term Community Recovery Team of FEMA Region VII, who led me through the process of listening to Joplin’s citizens.

May God bless us as we continue our recovery and use us as a blessing for other people.

Wake Forest’s Class of 2013 was reminded that timing is everything at Commencement on May 20.

Following a weekend of rain that continued into Monday morning, the precipitation stopped long enough – barely long enough – to allow Commencement to proceed as planned on Hearn Plaza. A ceremony that began with students delivering the welcome in half a dozen languages concluded with heavy rain falling, almost on cue, as it ended.

Stuck in a long line for the recessional, graduates struck up a cheer of “Wake!” “Forest!” amid the downpour. Faculty members pulled out umbrellas and gamely lined up in front of Reynolda Hall to applaud, hug and congratulate graduates. The rain ended within minutes, giving soaked graduates, family and friends time to take pictures and savor the moment.

It was perhaps the closest rain has come to disrupting the ceremony once the decision was made to proceed outside since 2001 — when light drizzle was falling as the ceremony began.

Since Commencement was held for the first time on Hearn Plaza in 1966, rain has forced the ceremony inside only four times — in 1973 and 1983 when it was held in Wait Chapel, and in 1991 and 2010 when it was held in Joel Coliseum; a wind storm in 1989 knocked down the tent the night before Commencement, but the ceremony proceeded, without a tent.

About 1,700 members of the Class of 2013 — 1,000 undergraduate and 700 graduate and professional students — received degrees during a ceremony that began under muggy overcast conditions and turned cooler as heavy clouds began moving over campus three hours later.

Sydney Shirley and Meggy Hearn show off their red Chuck Taylor sneakers.

An hour before the ceremony began, Sydney Shirley and Meggy Hearn sat on a curb in the parking lot beside Poteat Residence Hall fighting back tears. “I’m very emotional and near tears because this has been the best four years of my entire life,” said Hearn, a psychology major from Old Greenwich, Conn. “I know this is supposed to be commencing into a great new chapter in life, but I’m really sad to be closing this one.”

Hearn — no relation to former President Thomas K. Hearn Jr. — and Shirley, a psychology major from Raleigh, N.C., were sporting red Chuck Taylor sneakers, worn by the graduating members of their sorority, Chi Omega. Shirley’s twin brother, Jefferson, also graduated; their mother, Kimberly Boatwright Shirley, graduated in 1985.

Nearby, Austin Belcak, a biology major from Hilton Head Island, S.C., was munching a chicken biscuit and talking to friends while waiting in line. “The thing I’ll remember most are the people; I’ve made some of the best friends I’ve ever had. I’m pretty happy because we made it through four years, but also sad because I’m not going to see these guys for a while. It’s bittersweet.”

Mark Covington (’13) gets a little help with his bow tie from Landon Baucom (’13).

Allison Cacich, a communication major from Libertyville, Ill., surveyed the hundreds of students milling about waiting to line up for the processional onto Hearn Plaza. She said she’ll remember most the times when the student body came together as a community – for football games, Student Union events, carnivals and events such as Shag on the Mag. “I can’t believe it’s been four years since I started all this,” said Cacich, who hopes to land a job at a magazine in New York City. It’s unbelievable to see all my freshman friends and all the people I’ve met these past four years, and we’re all getting ready to enter the real world.”

Out on Hearn Plaza, Amy Forbes, an English major from Shakopee, Minn., was visiting with her parents, Jean and Dave Forbes, who had snagged good seats in front of the College Bookstore. “The best thing about Wake Forest was the ability to have small classes and get to know my professors,” said Forbes, who will be staying on campus this summer as an intern in the Club Sports program. “I went over to a lot of my professors’ houses for dinner a couple of times and got to know them on that personal level. That ultimately helped with my studies because I felt more comfortable talking with them about assignments because I knew them.”

Lauren Martinez (’13) and Katie Mahone (’13).

At Wake Forest’s first Commencement to integrate social media, students and parents were encouraged to tweet during the ceremony – tweets using the hashtag #wfugrad appeared on Jumbotrons – and share photos on Instagram. Over 1,150 tweets using #wfugrad were sent before and during the ceremony, and more than 500 photos tagged with #wfugrad were posted on Instagram.

Television journalist Gwen Ifill, who delivered the Commencement address, even got in on the action, taking to Twitter several days before her speech to ask graduates for suggestions on what she should say. During her speech, she paused to take out her phone and snap a photo of the audience for her Twitter feed.

Gwen Ifill

She urged graduates to find a cause that they believe in and use what they have learned to “affect the lives of those around you.”

“You have to decide what you care about, and then be prepared to act,” said Ifill, managing editor and moderator of “Washington Week” and senior correspondent for the “PBS NewsHour.” “If you see something, do something.… I don’t care if you’re Tea Party or Occupy. Do something. It is not essential that you care about everything. But you have to care about something.”

Chad Brady takes a self portrait with President Hatch as he crosses the stage.

In his remarks to the graduates, President Nathan O. Hatch encouraged them to display “grit,” persistence to master challenges and perseverance to overcome failure. “Understand how to cope with disappointment and failure. The timeless, if uncomfortable truth, is that true strength of character is almost always forged by encountering and overcoming failure.”

Also during the ceremony, retiring faculty from the Reynolda and Bowman Gray campuses were recognized (see list below). Hatch recognized long-serving staff members Toby Hale, Ken Zick and Harold Holmes. Hale (’65, P ’03), an associate dean of the college, is retiring after 43 years. Zick is stepping down after serving as vice president and dean of student affairs for 25 years, but he will remain on the faculty. Holmes, associate vice president and dean of student services, is retiring after 25 years.

Emma Huntsinger (’13) hugs a friend.

Five honorary degrees were awarded during the ceremony. Ifill received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Carolyn Y. Woo, president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services, received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters; she delivered the Baccalaureate Address in Wait Chapel on May 19.

Honorary degrees were also awarded to: Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, Doctor of Laws; and David S. Wilkes, executive associate dean for research affairs at Indiana University School of Medicine, Doctor of Science. The late Michael A. J. Farrell (P ’10), co-founder, chairman and CEO of Annaly Capital Management and the lead donor to Farrell Hall, was honored with a posthumous Doctor of Laws degree.

Retiring Faculty, Reynolda Campus
Watch a video of retiring Reynolda Campus faculty and staff

• Hugo C. Lane (P ’92, ’95), Professor of Biology, 40 years
• Paul M. Ribisl (P ’89, ’91), Charles E. Taylor Professor of Health and Exercise Science, 40 years
• Herman E. Eure (PhD ’74), Professor of Biology, 39 years
• Andrew V. Ettin, Professor of English, 36 years
• Robert L. Utley Jr. (’71), Associate Professor of Humanities, 35 years
• Harry B. Titus Jr., Professor of Art History, 32 years
• Perry L. Patterson, Professor of Economics and Lecturer in Russian, 27 years
• Alix Hitchcock, Lecturer in Art, 24 years
• Robert J. Plemmons (’61), Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, 23 years
• M. Stanley Whitley (’70), Professor of Romance Languages, 23 years
• Jenny Puckett (’71, P ’00), Lecturer in Romance Languages, 18 years
• Jeanne M. Simonelli, Professor of Anthropology, 14 years
  

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  Retiring Faculty, Bowman Gray Campus

• Dr. M. Madison Slusher (P ’87), Professor of Ophthalmology – Surgical Sciences, 38 years
• Dr. Charles S. Turner (MD ’70, P ’00), Professor of General Surgery, Pediatrics – Surgical Sciences, 38 years
• Timothy E. Kute, Professor of Pathology – Tumor Biology, 33 years
• Dr. Ralph B. Leonard, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, 32 years
• Dr. Kimberley J. Hansen, Professor of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery – Surgical Sciences, 27 years
• Dr. Robert Chin Jr. (P ’12), Professor of Internal Medicine – Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Immunologic Diseases, 25 years
• Dr. Constance Ann Stanton, Associate Professor of Pathology, 23 years
• Michael F. Callahan, Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery – Surgical Sciences, 22 years
• Dr. Margaret A. Harper (MS ’02), Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 22 years
• Claudine Legault, Professor of Biostatistical Sciences – Public Health Sciences, 22 years
• Dr. William G. Ward (P ’12), Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery – Surgical Sciences, 22 years
• Dr. Walton W. Curl, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery – Surgical Sciences, 17 years
• Dr. Michael A. Bettmann, Professor of Radiology – Radiologic Sciences, seven years

Katherine Wycisk (’12) and Aid4Uganda co-director Shane Falconer with a child from a Ugandan orphanage.

Katherine Wycisk (’12) is volunteer co-director of Aid4Uganda, a nonprofit in Melbourne, Australia, that supports orphanages in Uganda. “It’s the only kind of work I could ever imagine doing, and it is the most incredible job in the world,” she says. All of the money raised by Aid4Uganda goes directly to care for children. She is currently raising funds to more than double the size of an orphanage just outside the capital city of Kampala to house 100 children.

Why are you so passionate about this cause?

I wish I knew! I just know that my purpose in this world is to try and make it a little better – cleaner, happier, less hungry – than I found it. I do not have any grand illusions about changing the world, because no one person could ever do that. Rather, I believe in joining the ranks of those idealistic people who keep fighting to make a vision of a better future reality, because I am sure that if enough people do join them, sooner or later, the world will become a better place.

When did your interest in Africa begin?

It actually dates back to high school; that was when I learned about the insurgency raging in northern Uganda and started getting interested in the country’s – and the region’s – politics and culture. As my interest grew, I began reading East African newspapers and started getting involved with organizations such as Gulu Walk and the Enough Project that worked for peace and development in East Africa.

How did you pursue that interest at Wake?

I majored in political science, with an unofficial focus on African Studies and international development. I wrote every research paper I could on Uganda and the surrounding region, and I started thinking about traveling to the area. I finally got my chance in the summer before my senior year, when I used funding from the Richter Scholarship to spend two months in Uganda, splitting my time between volunteering in the capital city district and doing research in the northern city of Gulu.

The trip was absolutely incredible; I got to talk American foreign policy with people actually affected by it. I got to play with kids, travel the country, and do field research. I got to try my hand at cooking Ugandan dishes, sleep in an orphanage, and tour NGOs working to rehabilitate the northern region. I came home not only with an enhanced understanding of Uganda and the East African region, but with a career.

What professors inspired you while you were at Wake Forest?

Katherine Wycisk and Shane Fulcmar with children at an orphanage in Uganda.

How did you become involved with Aid4Uganda?

While I was in Uganda (through the Richter Scholarship), I met Shane Falconer, who was building an orphanage in a small suburb outside the capital city of Kampala. Shane was interested in expanding his work and creating a small charity focused on supporting orphanages throughout the country. It was an inspiring idea, and one that intrigued me. I could see that investing in children was the way to put the country’s people on the road to prosperity. Shane and I joined forces and established Aid4Uganda.

I know you worked for a year before you graduated with another Wake Forest graduate, the Rev. Taylor Field (’76), pastor of Graffiti Church in New York City. How did that experience affect you?

Click to read more about Graffiti Church.

Graffiti was a wonderful experience because it showed me how powerfully beneficial grassroots charity work can be. Graffiti works primarily with the underprivileged population of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, providing services such as GED classes, a clothing closet for job interview attire, computer classes and a soup kitchen. Being involved in such an on-the-ground organization helped me see how investing in individuals and meeting them where they’re at is the best way to influence and develop a community.

When Professor of Biology Herman Eure (Ph.D ’74) came to Wake Forest in the fall of 1974, diversity among the faculty and student body was sparse and, at that time, referred primarily to “black or African-Americans.” Eure, who was the first full-time black graduate student and the first black student to earn a doctorate from the Reynolda Campus, as well as the first black faculty member, retires this summer after 39 years at Wake Forest. He recently shared his retrospective on diversity during Thursdays at Byrum; here is an excerpt from those remarks.

Our diverse faculty and student body have impacted who we teach, how we teach, where we teach, what we teach, and what we study. All one has to do is to look at the research that faculty are involved in to see the impact. For example, Mary Deshazer’s work on diseases that affect women in the 21^st century, especially breast and ovarian cancer; Rian Bowie’s work with African-American Women and the Social Movement, Claudia Kairoff ’s work with 18^th Century Women Writers, Ulrike Wiethaus’s work on Native American Populations, Beth Hopkins’s (’73, P ’12) work on women of the Civil Rights Era, Tony Parent’s (P ’09) work on Slavery, Judith Madera’s work on Creole and Caribbean Culture, and Dany Kim-Shapiro’s work on sickle cell anemia, a disease that affect blacks, are but a few of the areas of scholarship that have resulted from a more diverse faculty.

But where are we with respect to diversity as an institution? This administration, collectively, has been the strongest supporter of diversity of any that I have seen in my 39 years at Wake Forest. In one of my first conversations with President Hatch, I told him that many people in campus communities talked about diversity, but few really did anything to help foster diversity. I said that the real measure of a university’s commitment to diversity was its willingness to commit personnel and resources to the endeavor and to have the university’s statement of its commitment to diversity front and center on the university’s web page. I am happy to say that he listened and then acted. He and his executive staff developed “actions items and strategies” to address diversity in our community and what follows are some of the results of those strategies and actions.

We have an office at the Provost level whose sole function is diversity and inclusion. We have an LGBTQ center, a Women’s Center, a Women’s and Gender Studies major, an Executive Advisory Council on Diversity and Inclusion, a Magnolia Scholars Program for first-generation students, a safe-zones training program, a gatekeepers program that teaches managers how to deal with issues of diversity and a Diversity and Inclusion Partners Council.

We had a former provost who was a female, the Dean of the Divinity School is a woman, the Dean of the College is a female (the second female to hold that position), the VP for Campus Life is a female, the Dean of the Law School is a black male, the director of the Magnolia Scholars program is a black male, a number of women lead University Centers and Institutes, we have an Islamic Imam, a black female chaplain and a Hispanic male is the new Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences. Barbee Oakes (’80, MA ’81), our Assistant Provost for Diversity and Inclusion, has been recognized nationally for her work on Diversity and Inclusion and our SAT test-optional admissions policy has increased the minority student pool from which we have drawn our incoming classes.

This commitment to diversity is radically different from what it was when I first came to Wake Forest. During those years, the push for a diverse faculty, staff and student body resided in a select few individuals in the college. Today, the commitment resides in the University as a whole, starting with the President and moving down through all levels of our institution. This is the only way to insure that diversity and inclusion become a part of an institution’s DNA.

I believe that the creation of the OMA (Office of Minority Affairs) set into motion a series of initiatives and measures which created a campus community that was to become more accepting of, comfortable with, and eager to embrace the concept of diversity. It fostered the broadening of our curriculum and increased the number of minority and women faculty, it helped to expand the of fields of study and scholarship of the faculty, it opened doors for women faculty that heretofore had been closed to them and it helped to change the collective attitudes of many with respect to the benefits of a diverse campus community.

Sociology professor Hana Brown and Le’Ron Byrd (’14).

I am by no means saying that the creation of this office was the only event that helped to change the campus attitude with respect to diversity, but I do believe that without the OMA, our community would have remained homogeneous for a considerably longer period than it did.

Now the obvious question is are we there yet? No we are not, but we have made great strides toward that end, and I have been honored to have been a part of the process. As we celebrate 50 years of integration, let us acknowledge that diversity has made Wake Forest a much better institution. So, I commend former Provost Ed Wilson (’43) and former President James Ralph Scales for their courage in creating the office that I believe started the push toward a more inclusive community, and the community for embracing that inclusiveness.

At the mention of Commencement, Abbe Brooks’ (’13) eyes became misty — a prelude to the tears one fights back at the prospect of leaving behind someone, or some place, so dear.

“I’m scared to think of what it’s going to feel like,” she said. “I don’t know where the last four years have gone.”

I met Abbe, a health and exercise science major from Greenville, N.C., who graduates May 20, after her father, Brad Brooks, wrote Wake Forest Magazine. He shared an intriguing story about the parallel paths of his daughter and her late grandfather, Robert E. Brooks (’48).

According to Abbe Wake Forest had always been a big deal in her family; her uncle, William Richardson (’75), and cousin, Elizabeth Richardson (’03), were alums. A sports fanatic like her grandfather, she played high school basketball and volleyball and dreamed of competing at the Division 1 level and a career in the WNBA. She envisioned herself at one of the larger state schools; Wake Forest wasn’t a prominent blip on her radar.

But things changed. “I realized I wasn’t good enough to play at that level,” she said, “but I knew I always wanted to be involved with sports and with a team.” She recalled how her grandfather had often talked about the close community of the Old Campus. Before he died in April 2009 — about the time Abbe had to make her college commitment — he vowed Wake Forest would lead her in the right direction and prepare her for anything.

Robert Brooks (’48)

She followed his path and became a Deacon, the sole student from her high school graduating class to enroll at Wake Forest. As her grandfather had on the Old Campus, she found a supportive community and a “family away from home” in the athletic department.

He had played baseball and basketball and was manager-trainer for Coach Douglas Clyde “Peahead” Walker. As a freshman, she applied for and got the job as assistant manager of the Wake women’s basketball team. She was promoted to manager her sophomore year and held the job throughout her college career.

Thanks to Roxann Moody (’82), head equipment manager, and Craig Zakrzewski (’00), assistant director of equipment room services, “It ended up being the greatest experience for me,” she said. “I had always been timid and shy, and they put me in a position where I was forced to be a leader and be assertive. They expected a lot from me, and I had to deliver.”

Abbe’s grandfather was the first Wake Forest student to graduate with a degree in physical education, earning a masters at East Carolina. He loved college basketball, she said, and knew more about players and recruits than most fans. But he settled down, started a family and devoted his career to coaching high school basketball and football in Elizabeth City, N.C.

She plans to get a graduate degree and stay involved with a college athletic program — the very thing her grandfather gave up some 60 years ago — with a career in nutrition and sports management.

In her final days as an undergraduate, Abbe reflected on the love for Wake Forest she and her grandfather will always share — what her Dad describes as ‘the ultimate parallel.’

“I don’t think words could explain how proud my grandfather would be of me,” Abbe said, her eyes getting misty again. “He had this awful needlepoint pillow that said ‘Hard to be Humble When You’re a Demon Deacon.’ I think he’d be saying ‘I told you so, I knew you’d love it.’ ” She added, “I’m nowhere near the 4-foot child hiding behind my mom anymore.”

Words that bespoke a grandfather’s wisdom — and offered insight into where the last four years had gone.

Not many of us are so devoted to serving the poor, the homeless and drug addicts that we’d move our young family right in with them. But that’s what the Rev. Taylor Field (’76) did when he moved with his wife and two toddlers — including future Wake Forest graduate Owen (’08) — to New York City’s Lower East Side in 1986.

In a neighborhood marked by abandoned buildings, crack houses and a park filled with homeless people, the one beacon of hope was a storefront mission church, East 7th Baptist Church, better known as Graffiti Church because of — well — the graffiti painted on it. When Field was called to serve as pastor there, the locals bet against him surviving. He had “to confront the dealers, embrace the users and feed the homeless by the hundreds,” he said.

Click to read more about Graffiti Church

Twenty-five years later the neighborhood has been transformed. Drug dealers no longer rule the streets, youth are more likely to ask for a donation for a mission trip than panhandle, and hope has replaced despair. “I’ve seen so many miracles,” Field said. “We need 500 blankets and I get a call that someone’s on the way with them.”

Graffiti occupies a new building down the block from its original location and is bursting with programs that serve the Lower East Side, the South Bronx and Brooklyn, including a legal-assistance ministry run by Owen Field.

“We’re a church that seeks to serve the unserved, those who have fallen through the cracks, those who live in the shadows,” Taylor Field said. “When you have a party, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind,” he says, quoting from Luke 14:13. “They can’t pay you back.”

East 7th Street is about as far as you can get from Wake Forest and Field’s Baptist upbringing in his native Oklahoma. After graduating with a degree in English, he worked at the Salvation Army in Winston-Salem, then took the advice of several Wake Forest religion professors and earned a master’s in divinity at Princeton.

He worked with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Christian Social Ministries in Harlem for a year and taught religion and philosophy in Hong Kong before earning a Ph.D. at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in California.

The path to Graffiti started when he realized that he was becoming a “talking head,” talking about serving the poor, but not doing anything about it, he said. “I feel like God has a calling for every person, to find the one thing that you must do. It took me a while to find out what God wanted me to do.

Follow Graffiti Church on Facebook

“I knew that what I loved doing was expressing God’s love in tangible ways — tutoring a child, giving someone a sandwich, providing a blanket, helping in some practical way. That’s what makes my heart sing and continues to make my heart sing. In the early days, that might be cleaning a toilet, but I was at peace with it and glad I was there.”

After run-ins during the early years with the neighborhood drug lord, a knife-welding man and the police — he was once arrested for protesting the city’s removal of homeless people from a park – Field admits that there was a time when he wondered what he was doing there.

But he has a slogan written on a blackboard in the church that reads: “Out of bad comes good.” It’s in Latin, a nod to his Wake Forest education, he says. It’s also a nod to what’s happened in the church’s neighborhood.

Graffiti reaches 10,000 people a year through what Field calls “relief work” — providing food, clothing, shelter — and “release work,” to help people break free from addictions. After-school programs offer a safe, drug-free environment for at-risk children and youth. GED, ESL and computer classes teach job skills to the unemployed. Another ministry provides food and vaccinations to the pets of homeless people.

“We want to be a light, not lightning,” Field said. “Lighting is a big boom and a big flash and then it’s gone. A light keeps shining. We want to help families long term.”

Graffiti has helped start 29 other churches and expanded its programs to other parts of the city. Music, dance and service programs are offered in Long Island. Graffiti Legal Services, directed by Owen Field, offers legal advice and adult education classes in Brownsville and other parts of Brooklyn. A program in the South Bronx helps children and families.

And those who once needed help are reaching out to help others. After Hurricane Sandy hit New York last fall — flooding Graffiti’s basement — church members cleaned up 21 buildings in the neighborhood.

Field, 58, has written several books about his experiences, including “Upside-Down Freedom,” due out this spring. His wife, Susan, is religious life advisor at Columbia University and chaplain affiliate at New York University. Their son Freeman helps coordinate Baptist work teams throughout the New York area. Owen Field graduated from the University of Buffalo School of Law before joining his father’s ministry.

Field hopes students — and others — take to heart a lesson he learned at Wake Forest 40 years ago. “I remember reading Albert Schweitzer, who said something like ‘first think, then do.’ Wake Forest helped me do that. You don’t just think, you do.”

Herman Preseren once set a goal to live to be 90 years old. “It’s wishful thinking, actually, because you never know what will happen,” the retired education professor said when he was still a young 88.

He blew by his 90 birthday easily and observed another milestone April 25 when he turned 100. To put that into perspective, Winston-Salem is also celebrating its 100 birthday; Winston and Salem joined together to form one city in 1913.

Provost Emeritus Edwin G. Wilson (’43), Professor of Education Joe Milner (P ’90, ’93), family and friends celebrated with champagne and cake with Preseren at his home on Faculty Drive, where he’s lived since 1959. A fellow retired military officer and friend used a Civil War sword for a ceremonial cutting of Preseren’s birthday cake.

Preseren threw up his hands in surprise and smiled broadly when a surprise guest showed up – the Demon Deacon. The Deacon pointed to Preseren, clapped, and spelled out 1-0-0 with his white-gloved hands.

Preseren’s family — he has two daughters, Nancy Fankhauser and Sandra Alley, three grandchildren and three great grandchildren — had encouraged friends and former students to send him birthday cards, hoping to receive 100 cards. He surpassed that mark and even received a letter from President Nathan O. Hatch expressing his best wishes.

Herman Preseren, 1976

Preseren joined the faculty in 1953 on the Old Campus and retired in 1983. In addition to teaching education courses, he was also chair of the education department from 1975 to 1979, director of the Educational Media Center, and for years the “motion picture photographer’ at athletic events. Preseren and his late wife, Ione, took students to Europe for more than 20 years.

“When I’ve asked him what he loved most about teaching at Wake Forest, he’s always said the students,” said Fankhauser. “His students meant the world to him.”

Vada Anderson (’60) of Winston-Salem took classes with Preseren and was among the well-wishers at his birthday party. She remembers Preseren teaching “life lessons” and practical skills important at the time, like how to thread a film projector. “He had a lot of enthusiasm for education,” she said.

Herman Preseren in the Reynolds Gym pool in 2001. (Photo by Ken Bennett)

Up until his 90s, Preseren was a familiar sight in the pool in Reynolds Gym, swimming a mile almost every day. He competed in several Senior Games at the state and national level and won numerous medals and ribbons, including three gold and two silver medals at the 2000 state Senior Games. He continued to swim competitively until he was 91.

A native of Pennsylvania, Preseren earned his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was a Lt. Colonel in the Army Air Corps during World War II and later served in the Air Force Reserve. For years, he wrote and edited a newsletter for the Reserve Officers Association.

Counterterrorism expert Daveed Gartenstein-Ross (’98), author of “Bin Laden’s Legacy: Why We’re Still Losing the War on Terrorism,” has been featured in the New York Daily News and other news outlets since the Boston Marathon bombings. He spoke with Wake Forest Magazine last month about the war on terrorism and again this week to discuss the Boston bombings.

What was your first reaction to the Boston bombings? Homegrown terrorism or an international plot?

My initial reaction was in line with that of other analysts: I thought that the two most likely motivations for the attack were jihadism and far-right extremism. Not exactly a bold prediction, but the perpetrator of the last major terrorist attack carried out in the West (Anders Brevik) surprised a great many people — including me — so I didn’t feel an obligation to get more specific this time around.

A dozen years after 9/11, have we become too focused on international threats and not homegrown terrorists?

I don’t think the problem is that we have been too focused on international threats. A quick look at the FBI’s various terrorism arrests over the past dozen years reveals plenty of attention to domestic terrorism.

The suspects in this case are ethnic Chechens who had lived in the U.S. for about a decade, and one is a naturalized American citizen. Do they represent a new kind of terrorist vs., say, the 9/11 terrorists?

Not really. The phenomenon of “homegrown” jihadist terrorism (where the terrorists’ primary cultural context is the U.S. or the West) was quite apparent even before the Boston attack. For example, Brian Michael Jenkins’ study Stray Dogs and Virtual Armies contains a list of all such cases through the end of 2010 (see pp. 29-40).

When we spoke to you in March, you said “The U.S. has been awfully good at preventing the next major terrorist attack (although sometimes we have gotten lucky, as was the case for the attempted bombing of Times Square).” Did our luck just run out?

Over the past 12 years, when the U.S. has experienced intelligence failures related to terrorist plots, dumb luck has often ended up saving lives (although, tragically, not at Fort Hood). For example, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s attempted attack on an airplane with a bomb hidden in his underpants on Christmas Day of 2009 got as far as it did because of what the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has described as “systemic failures across the Intelligence Community.” However, luck — in the form of a detonator failure — prevented Abdulmutallab from taking any innocent lives in that incident.

Do you see an intelligence failure, for instance the FBI’s failure to follow up on the older brother after receiving questions about him from Russian authorities?

There is certainly data to suggest that there may have been an intelligence failure. The most important data point in this regard currently is, as you state, that Russia alerted both the FBI and the CIA about Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s extremism and plans to join “underground groups.” But it’s too early to declare that an intelligence failure occurred, given that we don’t know what kind of information authorities were able to assemble about him, and whether that information should have made the danger he posed clear. Remember, we live in a society where our security agencies are rightfully constrained, so the fact that Russia’s FSB warned about Tsarnaev doesn’t automatically confer the right to monitor him.

Comparing the information available to authorities prior to Fort Hood with the information we know they had here, it is clear why the former can be regarded as an intelligence failure while the jury is still out on Boston. For Fort Hood, we can see the emails that the shooter, Nidal Hasan, exchanged with extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. This email exchange is what alerted authorities to the fact that Hasan might pose a threat in the first place. Comparing authorities’ earliest explanation of the exchange — that it was “relatively benign” — with what the actual documents reveal, we can say with confidence that they missed clear warning signs. In contrast, we don’t yet know what information authorities obtained about Tamerlan Tsarnaev at the time of Russia’s requests, so we don’t know that there was an intelligence failure.

Was there a lack of adequate security at the marathon?

Large public events are inherently difficult to police perfectly, so the fact that the attack succeeded doesn’t in itself prove there was a policing failure. If authorities better-secured the finish line, the Tsarnaevs could have carried out the attack just outside whatever perimeter was created. A good example of this is the January 2011 suicide bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, which occurred just outside the airport’s security checkpoint. When we have more information, there may have been an intelligence or policing failure. And determining whether one occurred is truly important in the wake of this tragic attack. But given how little we know at this point, there’s no need to rush to judgment.

One point you’ve made in the past is that our national debt is the greatest threat we face. In your piece in the New York Daily News, you seem to return to that theme, that we have more to fear from our own financial problems than terrorists, and that we shouldn’t fear a bomb in every school and church. Am I reading you correctly?

Terrorism is meant to engender fear, and it is natural that following a horrific attack like the one we experienced in Boston, some people will in fact be afraid. My New York Daily News piece was less wonky than what I normally write: it was designed to address some of the fears that I saw others expressing that I felt overstated the gravity of the situation. Specifically, Ron Fournier wrote in the National Journal that the Boston attack “makes every place (and everybody) less secure” — including malls, churches and schools — and that the attack might signal “a ‘new normal’ for America.” I wanted to reassure readers, at some length, that this attack did not represent our new normal.

I did speak about the U.S.’s financial and economic problems at the end, but my point was not simply that we have bigger problems than terrorism. While that is true, such statements can be rather condescending: the fact that any given problem isn’t the biggest problem our society faces doesn’t mean that it isn’t a real problem. Rather, the reason I discussed our financial problems was to address the bigger question of what would have to happen for such attacks to actually become the new normal. If our government is unable to deal effectively with the largest challenges our country faces, we might actually see violent extremism rise to the point that Fournier fears. So my point was that we’re not there now, but this attack actually underscores the need to address our disgusting political gridlock and inability to solve the country’s major problems.

Are there reasons that Chechnya rebels would want to attack us?

We don’t know whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev actually made contact with these groups during his time in the region, so we cannot at this point say that these groups are related to the plot. But I will note that though the Chechen militant groups do contain legitimate nationalists, they also have a strong jihadist wing. Gordon Hahn, a Russia specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has noted that the emir of the Caucasus Emirate, Doku Umarov, has declared jihad against not only Russia, but also “the U.S., Britain, Israel and ‘any country fighting Muslims anywhere around the world.’” Hahn writes that the Caucasus Emirate “follows and propagandizes the same radical Salafi jihadist theo-ideology professed by AQ and its affiliates without becoming one of them.” The prestigious British think tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, has an analysis of the Caucasus Emirate that reaches similar conclusions, and details the group’s somewhat ambiguous ties to the al-Qaeda network.

It is possible that the Caucasus Emirate and similar groups would refrain from attacking the U.S. because doing so could be strategically disastrous. And some analysts will surely argue that we should ignore the statements and rhetoric put out by the Caucasus Emirate, and consider it to be nationalist at its core. (Many such analyses seem to urge us, without cause, to simply ignore the way these groups explain their own ideology and motivations.)

None of this is to suggest that the Caucasus Emirate, which denied involvement in the Boston bombings, is to blame. Rather, I want to point out that the construction of Chechen militants as purely nationalist ignores plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is a visiting research fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C. He is the author or volume editor of 11 books and monographs, including “Bin Laden’s Legacy: Why We’re Still Losing the War on Terrorism” (2011) and “My Year Inside Radical Islam” (2007).

Richard Burr and Jane Owens Cage

A U.S. SENATOR. A HEROINE IN THE HEARTLAND. A TRUSTEE HONORED POSTHUMOUSLY FOR HIS LONG SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY.

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr (’78), Jane Owens Cage (’78) and the late Graham W. Denton Jr. (’67, P ’93, ’97, ’10) were named the 2013 Wake Forest Distinguished Alumni Award winners. They were recognized at a gala dinner on April 19.

Honoring the late Graham W. Denton Jr. (’67)

Each honoree reflects the spirit of Pro Humanitate through service to community and alma mater. Nominations come from within the Wake Forest community. The Executive Committee and the Volunteer Identification Committees of the Alumni Council, which represents the Wake Forest Alumni Association, select the finalists.

Richard M. Burr (’78)
Winston-Salem, N.C., and Washington, D.C.

As with every elected official, it can be tempting to consider U.S. Sen. Richard Burr (’78) in policy terms. He’s the guy who streamlined bureaucracy to expedite medical care for millions of Americans, for example. But to get the real point, ask somebody across the allegedly impassable gulf of partisanship to describe what makes the lifelong Winston-Salem resident tick.

Read more about Burr and see a tribute video »

Jane Owens Cage (’78)
Joplin, Mo.

With an evangelism of action, not words, Jane Owens Cage (’78) embodies the Wake Forest spirit of Pro Humanitate. She stepped up to serve her community when it needed her most, using business savvy and a gift for connecting with people and building consensus to lead the Citizens Advisory Recovery Team that brought Joplin, Mo., back to life after a catastrophic tornado in May 2011. As advocate, strategist and uniting voice, Jane Cage put her personal life on hold and her personal commitment to giving back into action.

Read more about Cage and see a tribute video »

The late Graham W. Denton Jr. (’67, P ’93, ’97, ’10)

Last October, three months before the distinguished alumnus lost his fight with pancreatic cancer, Wake Forest had a chance to thank Trustee Graham W. Denton Jr. (’67) for his devotion and service to the University.

Read more about Denton and see a tribute video »

As with every elected official, it can be tempting to consider U.S. Sen. Richard Burr (’78) in policy terms. He’s the guy who streamlined bureaucracy to expedite medical care for millions of Americans, for example. But to get the real point, ask somebody across the allegedly impassable gulf of partisanship to describe what makes the lifelong Winston-Salem resident tick.

“Richard Burr is a champion for North Carolina in the U.S. Senate,” a former election opponent said in 2009. “Let there be no question in your mind. I can tell you from firsthand experience that nobody works harder or smarter than this guy does in Washington.”

Those words came from Erskine Bowles, who lost the Senate race to Burr five years earlier, and they help explain the high regard the former communication major at Wake Forest enjoys in an era often defined by division. They also indicate where the student-turned-senator’s roots are. “The education and experiences I gained at Wake Forest prepared me for the rest of my life and set a foundation for service that has stuck with me ever since,” Burr said.

Burr has been persevering and winning over people for at least three decades. A defensive back on the Demon Deacon football team, he suffered a knee injury that cut short a promising 1975 season and knocked him out of action for all of 1976. In those days that kind of layoff almost always became permanent. Not in this case. Burr came back to play three games in 1977.

Upon graduation, Burr took a job with Carswell Distributing and worked his way from entry-level hire to national sales manager over 16 years before deciding to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994. A man who would rather rake leaves in his Winston-Salem yard and hang out with constituents than embed himself in the capital came home to his district every weekend.

“The lessons of Pro Humanitate and the education and personal growth I experienced in the classroom, on the football field, and with friends and classmates surrounded by the magnolia trees,” Burr remarked, “have truly been a guiding force for me and have inspired me to a life of serving my state and my country.”

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner saluted Burr in a video tribute. “I can’t think of a finer individual to represent the good people of North Carolina in the United States Senate than Richard Burr,” said Boehner. “He represents the very best of Wake Forest.”